This invention relates generally to processing error information, and more particularly processing error thresholds in a computer system.
Microprocessor systems often detect errors to self-diagnose the systems: Low error rates may be ignored because they may not significantly impact the performance of the processor, however higher error rates may indicate more severe errors. Error thresholds are used to detect more severe errors by determining whether an error occurs at a rate above a threshold. Errors are often processed in a round-robin scheme that reduces code processing overhead. For example, if one error is detected, it is monitored or logged and may be used to update a threshold count. A second error is processed on a next iteration or pass after a first error. If a certain number of errors are detected within a given amount of time (e.g. 10 errors in one minute), a threshold may be reached. If the threshold is not reached in the given amount of time, the threshold count is reset.
If a time limit for an error threshold passes before all of the errors have been processed, a high error rate may not be detected, and severe errors may not be found. It is desirable for a method and system that detects high error rates more accurately without increasing code processing overhead.